


full dark, no stars

by wethethousands (atlantisairlock)



Category: Gravity (2013)
Genre: F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2505143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/wethethousands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>with a sky full of stars, they die in each other's arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	full dark, no stars

**Author's Note:**

> title from the book by stephen king with the same name.

"Oxygen down to 33%."

_It's enough. It has to be enough. It's going to be enough. We're going to be all right._

"Ryan," Matt says, and it's little more than a whisper, so tired. "It's not enough."

She shakes her head adamantly. "I'm not leaving you behind."  _Not again._

"Ryan." He repeats her name, even softer, and it reminds her of the way Sarah used to say  _mom._ "One of us has to get back. For them." 

He's right. 

But he's wrong.

She cannot cry, she will not cry, but there is salt on her tongue, on her throat, thick and loamy. It's getting harder to breathe, and not just because her oxygen tank is rapidly emptying.

How long have they been drifting in silence? 

How long has it been since they left Earth?

How long?...

She and Sarah used to go stargazing. Sarah could point out all the major constellations - Andromeda, Orion, the Big Dipper - flickering, blinking back at them. The lights in this sky are frigid and unflinching, shards of ice scattered in vast perpetuity. 

Ryan is vaguely aware of the fact that Matt is no longer speaking. Everything seems so far away without his voice - the safety of their big blue Earth, the wreckage that is the STS-157, sanctuary.

When she closes her eyes, there are starbursts behind her eyelids, flickering sparks illuminating a world made out of psychedelic colour. 

 

 

"Oxygen down to 0%."

The night is endless, light absent but for the cold, lonely stars. 


End file.
